The Uttarakhand assembly’s budget session is likely to be a stormy affair, with the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party gearing up to corner the Congress government over ‘key issues’.

Leader of opposition Ajay Bhatt dubbed last year’s state budget as a glaring example of the Rawat government’s fiscal mismanagement.(HT file photo)

The Uttarakhand assembly’s budget session is likely to be a stormy affair, with the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party gearing up to corner the Congress government over ‘key issues’ like corruption, mis-governance, fiscal mismanagement and its alleged failure on the law and order front.

“We will also expose this government for its link with the land, liquor and mining mafia apart from its all-round failure,” said leader of opposition (LoP) Ajay Bhatt. He accused chief minister Harish Rawat of not being in command of his own government. “Bureaucracy doesn’t listen to him (Rawat). In fact, his own ministers lack coordination and openly criticise him and his policies,” he claimed.

Bhatt alleged that state finance minister Indira Hridayesh and the senior member of the Rawat cabinet recently openly asked him to stop announcing schemes citing severe budgetary constraints. “The CM himself vented his frustration over his helplessness in handling the bureaucracy when he recently confessed that his orders keep moving in circles like jalebis,” he said.

Bhatt dubbed the last year’s state budget as a glaring example of the Rawat government’s fiscal mismanagement. “It’s been a year since the budget of Rs 7562.65 crore was passed and the total expenditures come to a measly Rs 4726 crore,” he said.

He also accused the Rawat government of misusing the government machinery and wasting the tax payers’ money in hosting a show each of international wrestler Khali in Dehradun and Haldwani last month.

The Congress rubbished these allegations. “As many as five chief ministers of that party (BJP) were replaced in a span of just six years, which is a glaring example of inefficiency and mis-governance,” said Surendra Kumar, the chief minister’s media in-charge. “And two of those five BJP CMs were unseated on charges of corruption,” he said.